Clouded Ambitions
by K-man
Summary: What happens when the world you once knew turns upside down? I'll come up w/ a better summary once I figure out how to U/L this story correctly. Help is appreciated please!
1. Intro

A/N: Not much on fanfic.net lately that interests me so I decided to make a feeble attempt at my first fanfic. Please let me know how my writing is or of any errors. Starts off after the defeat of Ultimecia. Thanks and enjoy! (hopefully) **Also, can anyone help me figure out how to get this friggin' formatting corrected? My quotation marks are showing up as squares( " see?) and it's frustrating me. I followed what fanfic says, saving my word doc as a web document but it still doesn't work. My thanks ahead of time for this annoying problem.**

Disclaimers: I don't own any of these characters in the story. They are all Squaresoft's property.

**"Even if you end up as the world's enemy,"**

****

**_"I'll….."_**

****

**_"I'll be your knight."_**

It was over. It was finally over. The battle against Ultimecia was an endless and tiring ordeal, but everyone stuck together and relied upon one another until the last blow was made. The SeeDs and the sorceress had prevailed. 

Quistis Trepe and Selphie Tilmitt had escaped time compression and were now standing outside the gates of Balamb Garden, where everyone had decided to meet if they were victorious. Suddenly, Selphie jumped a mile up in the air as two figures approached. 

"Yeah, you guys made it!" shouted the girl in the yellow dress as she ran up to Zell Dincht and Irvine Kinneas, startled a bit by the ball of energy headed their way. Quistis, nodding her head ever so slightly, slowly followed behind Selphie to greet the pair as well.

"Of course, you'd expect anything less?" exclaimed the cowboy as he gave Selphie a hug and small peck on the cheek.

"Did you see the butt-kicking I gave to that sorceress, Quistis?" quipped Zell, hopping up and down, replaying the moves that he had used on Ultimecia.

Rolling her eyes and smiling, Quistis simply nodded her head. Then she heard a thunderous growl from Zell's direction, as did Irvine and Selphie whose heads suddenly turned towards the martial artist.

Embarrassingly, Zell held his hands over his stomach and said, "Wow, all this fighting musta given me an appetite. I could eat a million hot dogs right now."

Everyone except Zell, who looked dumbfounded, started bursting out in laughter at the spiky-haired blonde's last statement. But then the gang quieted down when Zell spoke again. 

"Where's Squall and Rinoa?"

The SeeDs shook there heads and said nothing, for they were as clueless as Zell. Everyone instead sat down and scanned the horizon, searching and hoping for signs of the SeeD Commander, Squall Leonhart, and the sorceress, Rinoa Heartilly. Finally after a half hour, Irvine broke the uneasy silence that had fallen upon his comrades.

"They'll be here soon." _I pray to Hyne…_ "Let's wait inside of Garden, it's getting late and cold out here," the sharpshooter said as everyone nodded in agreement and slowly headed inside Balamb.


	2. We meet again

Rinoa quietly stepped foot upon the desolate and barren wasteland where Squall had ended up. Seeing him lie motionless upon the dusty and deserted plain, the sorceress bent over to check on her love. Trying to keep her tears in check, she wrapped her arms around him and frantically searched for a pulse before finally breaking down and crying. 

Suddenly, the empty void they were once in lit up in a blink of the eye. The dreary clouds and skyline that once loomed overhead were now gone, replaced by bright blue skies, radiating sunlight, and puffy-white clouds. Flower petals and feathers swirled and danced with the wind all around Rinoa, who suddenly looked up at her new surroundings. A rustle in her arms immediately drew her attention back down, and an expression of relief, joy, and puzzlement all mixed into one dawned upon her dainty face.

"I told you I'd be here waiting," the suddenly conscious man choked out as he slumped upwards off of the ground. "I'm sorry I took a detour."

The raven-haired beauty wore a smile that beamed for miles upon miles at the last comment and said, "I'm here too, just like we promised," gesturing her hand towards the rich landscape they suddenly found themselves in. 

"I thought that I had lost you," spoke the brown-haired man slowly, still trying to get over the terrible images that flashed in his mind during time compression. "I don't know what I would've done without you."

Rinoa, touched by the heartfelt words that rarely came out of Squall, was speechless for the first time in her life. Finally, unable to formulate anything as touching as what Squall had said, she hugged him and said, "I'm with you now, and will be for as long as we are together." _For eternity I hope…._

Squall, clutching onto Rinoa as if she were about to fall a thousand feet, quietly whispered, "I hope so too." 

The sorceress helped him onto his feet and said, "Let's go meet the others."

*****

As they entered Balamb Garden, with Squall leaning on Rinoa's small frame for support, the gang was asleep at the front gate, along with Mr. Johnson, the gatekeeper. Zell was leaned up against the gate, snoring loudly. Selphie was asleep and snuggled up next to Irvine, who was talking in his sleep. "Bang, bang," he blurted out every once in a while. Quistis was sprawled out on a bench, seemingly exhausted from their adventures.

Time to wake them up, Rinoa thought. "Hey everybody, look who I found," blurted the raven-haired sorceress as she spotted the SeeDs.

Everyone jumped up from their temporary slumber in surprise, including Mr. Johnson, as Rinoa spoke. Irvine, still groggy from his nap, simply nodded his head and tipped his hat to the pair as Selphie rushed over to greet Rinoa and Squall. 

Zell got up and walked over to Squall, slapping him on his back as a welcome back gesture. But Squall fell to the ground, still feeling exhausted from the aftereffects of time compression, and grunted a few obscene words under his breath at Zell before being helped back onto his feet by Rinoa and an apologetic Zell.

Quistis, sighing deeply upon being awoken from her nap, waved and said hello to the pair before proceeding off to her room, needing some much needed rest, apparently more so than the others, who continued to chit-chat into the early morning hours.


End file.
